Change is accelerating with new tools, harder choices, and less patience. I have helped leaders and businesses prepare for what's coming: to recruit the workforce they want, retain the people they have, and bolster their bottom line on the way.
I've spent my career at the seam where strategy meets people: pension actuarial work, executive compensation, HRIS, healthcare, and benefits. After leading strategy for the Employee Benefits practice at one of the world's largest healthcare consultancies and brokerages, I'm now working with the largest and oldest health system in Texas, helping employers reset how they buy and deliver care. The thread through all of it: getting leaders out of the PowerPoint deck and into a real conversation about the people doing the work.
That's also why I co-wrote Culture Is the Strategy with Annette Dowdle. The companies that win treat culture as the plan, and prove it with the small, intentional acts that compound over years. Most don't. They wrote a plan, then hope culture catches up. It doesn't.
I also muse on Substack about what I'm seeing across the workforce, life and AI while trying not to be too much of a know-it-all about it. I'm still figuring it out.
Belonging beats benefits and pay. When people feel like they belong, they bring their full self to the work.
Employer-sponsored healthcare has become a maze. National vendors. Layers of intermediaries. Prices nobody can see until the bill arrives. Your people end up paying for it twice, in dollars and in their own experience of care.
Texas can do this differently.
Through the largest and oldest health system in Texas, I work with employers to rebuild their benefits around the system already taking care of their communities. The infrastructure is here. The clinicians are here. We've built Employer Solutions to connect employers directly and efficiently.
Care happens in neighborhoods. Healthcare should be local.
Direct contracting connects straight to physicians, hospitals, and care teams. The people delivering the care are the people in your community.
One accountable partner across primary care, specialty care, surgery, and chronic disease. Fewer handoffs. Faster decisions for your team.
Aligned incentives. Predictable economics. Outcomes that compound over time and show up in the renewal numbers.
The people who deliver the care also live in the community. That's the part the national vendors can't replicate.
Talk to me about Employer Solutions.
Working in Texas? I'd like to hear what you're up against.
Through the intersecting stories of a credentialed but green CEO, a classic "sales guy" and a seasoned HR leader trying to repair an organization from the inside, Culture Is the Strategy shows how small, intentional acts, driven by leadership that genuinely cares, create sustainable performance, attract real talent, and bolster the bottom line.
Each chapter unpacks practical moves on hiring, trust-building, culture diagnostics, and leadership behavior you can apply tomorrow morning.
I've researched and authored materials to help guide those looking for an edge or a way to curb costs or a losing culture. Representative work is below.
Why the companies that lead the next decade will treat culture as a P&L lever, and the small, intentional acts that get them there.
Healthcare costs, mental health, flexibility, listening. The four shifts every HR leader needs a real plan for in 2026.
Where strategy meets people. For boards, CHROs, and C-suites figuring out what the operating model should actually look like once you take the workforce seriously.
The five most recent posts across both publications show here. More at jefffaber1.substack.com and cultureisthestrategy.substack.com.
Organizations' success will lag without AI solutions in 2025.
Read →Healthcare cost management, mental health, flexibility, and listening are focus areas for 2025.
Read →The Benefits Compass: Navigating 2025's Uncertainties
Read →A review of the tried and true strategies that will remain for 2025 and a glimpse of new and developing strategies to consider.
Read →The chief strategy officer for global insurance brokerage HUB International's Employee Benefits Practice discusses strategies for a hotel workforce.
Read →Health insurance captives will continue to be a workable means to cut costs and improve care.
Read →Organizations that want to strengthen their culture should consider cultivating human-centric managers and understand the impact of personalization on employee attitudes.
Read PDF →Personalization, concierge healthcare, mental health, generational shifts.
Read →Effective strategies to address escalating healthcare costs in 2024, with Linda Keller
Read →The increase in remote and hybrid work arrangements, accelerated retirements and a new generation of workers are partly behind this culture transformation.
Read PDF →Adopting a people-first approach invigorates the workforce by acknowledging individual needs and nurturing a sense of value within the organization.
Event recap →A review of the tried and true strategies that will remain for 2024 and a glimpse of new and developing strategies to consider.
Read →The episode covers rising healthcare pressures, vulnerable workers, and how employers can improve benefits through communication, data, and strategic partnerships. Effective benefits strategy means personalized support, honest conversations, and smarter use of data.
Listen →2024 benefits challenges, from inflation and deferred care to using analytics and trust-building to better support employees
Read →Jeff Faber is joined by Carrie Cherveny and Cory Jorbin discussing the need for companies to consider AI policies and communication strategies for their workforce.
Listen →Understanding the mindset of your employees, the framework through which they see your value and the mistake of focusing on the average employee will help you uncover better strategies to recruit, retain and motivate the workforce you want.
Event recap →Employees may have irrational fear for losing money like unused FSA funds where the real impact could be elsewhere.
Read →Employees may have irrational fear for losing money like unused FSA funds where the real impact could be elsewhere.
Read →A review of the tried and true strategies that will remain for 2023 and a glimpse of new and developing strategies to consider.
Read →Going beyond traditional benchmarking are more important now than ever before and data analytics platforms are now table stakes.
Read →VPHRs and CHROs are now able to thin slice their populations to understand how their offerings help or hurt retention. Discover the data strategies and mindset shifts necessary to optimize and futureproof your programs
Event recap →It's very rarely medical, dental and vision that differentiate an offer from one employer to another.
Read →Personalized, flexible benefits will be critical to total rewards and retention.
Read →Employers will shoulder the lion's share of premium increases this year. Younger workers expect "white-glove" services and assistance with home buying, car buying, and moving.
Read →Decisions within a company for retirement and health are typically made by two separate and distinct committees, often with competing priorities. How can we get everyone on the same page and align with the bottom line?
Read →Better insights into an evolving workforce can provide meaningful benefits for employees to thrive in their career and personal lives.
Event recap →Telemedicine use increased 4,000-plus percent, changing the way people expect and experience care. The impact of COVID-19 also effects deferred services and preventive care.
Read →Employers should personalize benefits portfolios after the pandemic and use workforce segmentation/data analytics to align benefits to employee needs.
Read →Bespoke benefits are en vogue. Welcome To The Era Of Custom-Curated Employee Benefits.
Read →Employers should personalize benefits portfolios after the pandemic and use workforce segmentation/data analytics to align benefits to employee needs.
Read →The best way to support your workforce in the “New Normal” is with Personalized Benefits, but it starts with advanced data analytics on your population.
Event recap →The era of custom curated employee benefits helps companies meet the needs of every corner of their population with the focus on high-impact offerings with ROIs on productivity and retention.
Read →Data transparency is crucial to optimize decision-making for benefit teams.
Read →ID protection and debt consolidation programs, data transparency are popular open enrollment offerings this year, with low cost and high impact.
Read →Side project in motion. I'm cataloging every piece I've written, contributed to, been quoted in, or appeared on as a guest. Articles, journals, podcasts, summits, across the last two decades. Have a link I'm missing? Send it over.
Send a link →A few other things I love, some professional, some fun.
A curated community of industry innovators working on the future of health insurance and employee benefits. It brings people together to take on the hard, strategic problems in the field and push the work forward.
A longevity benefit built for one of retirement's hardest problems: making your savings last as long as you do. I think it could be a real gamechanger for how people plan for a long life.
Wills, trusts, and estate planning made simple and affordable. The kind of protection that used to be reserved for the wealthy is finally within reach for everyday families.
An easy way to compare prescription drug prices and see what medications really cost, so people can stop overpaying at the pharmacy counter.
A writing project poking fun at the mystery and misery of AI writing.
On the personal side, I'm learning to paint wet-on-wet in the Bob Ross style. r/HappyTrees is my go-to for inspiration and the occasional happy accident.
To help me solve healthcare, chat, suggest a podcast or just to send along a piece I should add to the catalog. Drop a note. I read every one.